Bonneville reveals Twenty Twelve Olympics specials

Hugh Bonneville has revealed the Twenty Twelve team are planning special episodes to tie in with the summer Olympics.

The Downton Abbey actor stars with Jessica Hynes and Olivia Colman in the BBC spoof documentary about the team planning London 2012.

Hugh revealed: “There’s four new episodes coming out at the end of March and we’re going to try to film three more and get them out for the Olympics.”

He added: “Seb Coe’s been a good sport and he appears in the next series. I’m sure he’ll be a bit busy come late spring when things really start hotting up but we’ve got some good fun in store for the show.”

The actor, who has just begun filming the next series of hit ITV costume drama Downton Abbey, admitted he relished going between his stiff-upper-lipped character in Downton to the comedy of Twenty Twelve.

He laughed: “It’s such a contrast I can’t tell you, to go from the relative calm and the stiff collars of Downton to the frenetic pace of Twenty Twelve, it’s great. It’s a lovely contrast to be able to do that.”

And Hugh is looking forward to working with Shirley MacLaine, when she arrives in Downton Abbey.

“I’m just incredibly excited about sharing just a few minutes of screen time with her,” he said.

“We’re all over-the-moon that we’re going to have two great titans of cinema in the same square footage, Maggie [Smith] and her together.”

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